4:47 am ET, June 7, 2023
How did the first day of cross-examination go?
By Christian Edwards of CNN
Harry on Tuesday became the first senior member of the British royal family in more than a century to take the witness stand and endure a grueling day of cross-examination.
The prince submitted 33 articles alleging that media outlets owned by Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) had been unlawfully gathering information or fact-checking.
After the first few exchanges, the rhythm of the cross-examination began to develop in predictable ways. Here are some of the main themes:
Uncertain schedules: Andrew Green, the lawyer representing MGN, first asked the prince when he had seen each article that allegedly caused him “grief”. This became Green’s first line of defense. “If you don’t remember reading the article then, how can you say that article has given you grief?” he asked the Duke of Sussex. Harry repeatedly claimed he couldn’t remember when he first encountered each article, as many of them were written more than 20 years ago. Instead, Harry argued that press coverage fed into a “general environment” that played a “destructive role” during his childhood and adolescence.
Not just the mirror: Green tried to show that the MGN newspapers, along with many other newspapers, reported on the prince’s life – and in many cases merely retold stories that were already “in the public domain”. The lawyer often referred to articles published by The Sun, The Chron, The Daily Telegraph and other media to suggest that in many cases the Daily Mirror had not engaged in nefarious practices itself. Harry acknowledged that he could see “similarities” between some of these stories. When asked why he hadn’t filed complaints about the media that first made the stories public, Harry replied that he hadn’t been informed of every single one of them.
“Ask the journalist”: Green repeatedly urged Harry to identify whose phone he believes was hacked to obtain private information. But most conversations ended with Harry claiming Green needed to “ask the journalists” if they engaged in phone hacking. “I don’t think it’s my job as a witness to construct the article or to indicate which parts were wrongfully obtained and which parts weren’t, that’s what the journalist should do,” Harry told the court. In a heated moment, Green asked, “Are we, Prince Harry, in the realm of total speculation?” Harry replied, “I don’t think so.”